


Hunger

by whovianmuse



Category: Little Nightmares (Video Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 06:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17177375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whovianmuse/pseuds/whovianmuse
Summary: The Hunger is said to be a dark spirit, a disease, a corruption, forged at the bottom of the ocean amidst the crushing darkness. The Hunger consumes all who dare enter this vessel of horrors, twisting and corrupting the heart, mind, and soul of every creature it finds. The Hunger is what keeps the Guests coming back for more, calling out to the wickedness already brewing in their grotesque hearts like a siren song as the Maw rises from the depths. The Hunger is insatiable. The Hunger must be fed.A novelization of the full video game playthrough, with some of my theories on worldbuilding and various character backstories woven in.





	Hunger

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:**  This is a work of fan fiction inspired by  _Little Nightmares_. Respective concepts, characters, and settings from the original source content belong to their creator(s). No copyright infringement is intended.

**• Prologue: The Lure Of The Maw •**

 

_Play with your childhood fears!_

 

            The Maw is an ancient vessel. A myth. A legend. As the North Wind sweeps over the lands and the smell of sea salt fills the air, children are told tales of its legacy. Once a year, the Maw rises from the darkest depths of the ocean and welcomes its guests to a luxurious feast filled with all manner of rare and illegal delicacies, a special treat reserved for the gluttonous, depraved, privileged few who can afford such things.

            These tales are thought to be mere folk lore, told as a way of warning to keep children well-behaved. No one ever expects fairy tales to be true…but alas, this one _is_. That rare, illegal delicacy that the Guests so feverishly consume is _children_ , for the Guests are monstrous beings who crave human flesh, and children are considered the sweetest of them all. Children that have been captured, lured by the Ferryman with promises of sweets and toys, and dragged into the underworld of the Maw, never to be seen again.

            They are kept in the Prison, corralled by the Janitor, and prepared by the Twin Chefs for the Guests. Any children who try to escape the chopping block are eventually caught by the Lady, the highest power in the Maw’s chain of command, their bodies transformed into gray, shriveled, hunching figures, little lost things with no memory of the life they lived before, their souls forever trapped in the boundless confines of the Maw, corrupted by dark magic, existing as shadow demons forever bound to do the Lady’s bidding.

            Who, or more effectively, _what_ the Lady is…well, that’s a bit more difficult to explain. Some say she is the goddess of death, as ancient and as timeless as the world itself. Some say she is a siren, luring little children to their untimely demise as she hums her hypnotic melody. Some say she is a powerful sorceress, a vessel of darkness that plays host to all the most evil things in the world.

            Some say her bloodline was cursed long ago by a dark spirit called the Hunger, and that each daughter born thereafter is destined to kill her mother and take her rightful place in the line of succession. Some say that the Lady is the fifth heir, and that the night before she began her reign, she brought her own mother to the edge of death on suspicion of foul play, and banished her to the depths of the Maw, where she exists as a broken shell of her former self, feeding off of rats, rotten fish heads, and wayward children.

            Some say that as the Lady aged, she became lonely, took a lover and sired a daughter of her own. When the sixth heir was born, and the Lady looked into her daughter’s eyes, she vowed that the curse of her bloodline would end with her, and that she would never repeat her mother’s mistakes. But as her daughter grew into a bright, lovely young girl, the Lady grew jealous of her youth and her beauty.

            The Hunger corrupted her, darkened her heart and twisted her soul, whispering all manner of terrible things into her ear late at night while she slept. She was driven mad by fear that history would repeat itself. She wasn’t ready to die, to give up her reign, to give up all that power. To ensure that it would never happen, she ordered to have her only daughter murdered by her hired henchmen, strangled by the Janitor and prepared by the Twin Chefs as dinner for her vile Guests.

            Luckily, the young girl’s father overheard this plan, and escaped with his daughter before the Lady could follow through. He smuggled her out of their suite in the dead of night in an unassuming, worn leather suitcase, and brought her to the lower levels of the Maw, lamenting the fact that he had not thought to bring her shoes, but had, at least, dressed her in a little yellow raincoat to protect her from the leaking pipes and the chill of the wind. He smiled down at her, eyes filled with tears at the thought of what had almost happened to his little canary, and began plotting their escape.

            He left her side only once, to bring back food for them both. But once was all it took. He was captured and questioned on the whereabouts of the sixth heir, and when he did not concede, he was hanged for treason. The Janitor, loyal as ever to his mistress, told the Lady of her daughter’s escape and her husband’s subsequent death. To his horror, the Lady flew into a rage, contorting his body with her dark magic until it was warped and distorted beyond reason, burning his eyes until they were nothing but singed sockets, effectively blinding him for his incompetence.

            Some say she was human, once, before the Hunger seduced her, promising her immortality and power beyond measure. Legend has it she was so beautiful, that marble statues and little figurines were constructed in her honor. But as the Hunger consumed her, that beauty gave way to darkness, and all she saw when she looked in the mirror were withered, grotesque, distorted features and a pair of demon’s eyes, black as coal, staring back at her.

            The more she was consumed by the darkness, the more the light burned her, so she withdrew into the shadows, hiding away beneath the waves in the darkest depths of this rotten world’s most treacherous seas. Not wanting to see what she had become, the Lady smashed every mirror in the Maw that she could get her hands on, every reflective surface that could cast a white-hot, burning light upon the darkness prowling within her, and wore a mask to preserve the mirage of her beauty. Even the Lady, with all the magic in the world at her fingertips, could not escape the clutches of the dark curse so irrevocably woven into her bloodline. This is what the Hunger does to any and all that cross its path.

            The Hunger is said to be a dark spirit, a disease, a corruption, forged at the bottom of the ocean amidst the crushing darkness. The Hunger consumes all who dare enter this vessel of horrors, twisting and corrupting the heart, mind, and soul of every creature it finds. The Hunger is what keeps the Guests coming back for more, calling out to the wickedness already brewing in their grotesque hearts like a siren song as the Maw rises from the depths.

            The Hunger is insatiable.

            The Hunger _must_ be fed.


End file.
